THIS, I like

 When a gun control group realizes their gun control message is no longer persuasive in shaping policy they have to pivot to other issues to get possible allies in power to reject possible enemies.

"Amy Barrett is pro Second Amendment so shouldn't be on SCOTUS"

Naw, that doesn't work.  Everyone is buying a gun for protection right now.  I GOT IT!

"Amy Barrett wants to take away your health coverage!"

That'll scare the rubes.  ANd if that doesn't work, we'll make up something about her wanting to take their Social Security away.

 

Crap... Nuffin

 I am sleep deprived.  The back is uncomfortable enough that I fidget during the day and lie awake at night unable to fall asleep.  Aleve does nothing now.  

I have interviewed others that have had the fusion surgery.  I really don't think I am a candidate for that yet.  They have similar symptom as me but add on HORRIBLE looking back x-rays that even laymen go "well, that ain't right."  Also they get a pain twinge that feels like they are getting stabbed with a sharpened red hot knitting needle.  Pain so bad they almost vomit.  They sleep on the floor and contemplate suicide.  I don't have that.  

Yet.

Which may well mean no surgery to fix it.  I have heard two types of stories.  "Surgery took forever to recovers from, but it is loads better now" and "Surgery made it much much worse."  Yuck

But... I am distracted from blogging.  If I wasn't hoarding ammo, the PT is twice a week right now, taking up range slots in my schedule.  And the ache takes the fun out of all this.  Here.  Blogging about gun stuff.  Doing gunstuff.  Yada yada.

Guns.

Hmm.

I keep thinking of finding a gunsmith that will make me a modern day DeLisle rifle.  Modern action, bolt, lefty, with an big integrated suppressor, and a 1911 mag well.  I'd throw G's at that, if I was confident it'd be reliable.  And it's a rifle I could take to the range.  Pistol caliber and all.    

My own personal bibliography

If anyone ever got a list of tiles of everything in my Kindle I'd be Cancel Cultured.  RACISS!

Why?

Is it full of racist tracts?  Mein Kampf?  The Turner Diaries?  Everything Woodrow Wilson ever wrote?  LBJ's biography?

NO!  Nothing like that.  Jeez.  But it does have a lot of public domain stuff.  Older stuff.  Writers of a different era.  Different sensibilities.  H. L. Mencken.  H. P. Lovecraft. Sax Rohmer.  H. Rider Haggard stories.  Joseph Conrad.  Earl Derr Biggers books. Robert E. Howard.  People can't read those and be adult about it anymore.  Everything has to be analyzed with a modern day lens and expurgated.  It has to go through the PC meat grinder and ground into powder, sifted for every molecule of offense, and then accusations made. (I date myself again.  The kids today say 'SJW,' not 'PC'.  Oh my back.  I don't even have the energy to warn you off my lawn, at this point.)  

If I were ever to write a work of fiction I'd probably adopt that now archaic style.  Even though it isn't how I think today.  But I'd use it just to bring that tone back to experience again and bedamn the over-sensitive mentally aberrant squawkers. Bedlamites that need to be locked in the Booby Hatch.

Cthulhu is real

 What caliber for Eldritch Horror?

Oh, this is all we need.  I thought it was a mistake letting other primates share the planet, but that will seem small potatoes compared to hyper intelligent and angry cephalopods.  Undoubtedly from out of space.  

Get them Delta Green guys on the horn.  This is way outside my jurisdiction.

Zombies aren't real

 Oh yeah?  Might as well say the Japanese aren't real.  Or the Canadians.   But we had plans to fight the Japanese or the Canadians.

I don't know what the color should be for Zed, but... Gray?  No that was for the Caribbean or Central America.

Anyway.  We have a daggum plan to fight the Shamblor menace.  

Well, yeah.

 If you shoot yourself in the upper thigh it will be, of course "just missed hitting the femoral artery."

The whole thigh is the femoral artery's neighborhood.  Like if a meteorite the size of a Buick hits my house?  Yeah, I'm dead.  I'm the femoral artery.  If it hits the neighbors house or a few houses down on my street?  Almost as significant an event in my life.  My afternoon nap is definitely impacted. The rest of my life will be "yer one of them guys the that Buick-ite just missed hitting!"

Yup.

Also, and many better people than me have already told you this...  Stop touching your CCW gun.  Especially in public.  Leave it in the holster.  It ain't for show and tell.  Especially on line at the market.

Do that, and sure, appendix carry is your preference.  You are safe as houses until you get all in a sharing mood.  Like that guy.

Whitey is inciting violence

 The past week I've hear a talking point that the "right-wing is the one inciting violence at otherwise peaceful protests".  You know, like at Minneapolis and Kenosha.

Here is the latest, but it's not the only.  

I can't find via google the other ones I have seen, including people being mocked for it on Twitter.  So it must not be getting any traction.

I am highly dubious that anyone right of center is sparking arson, vandalism, robbery, assault, and murder. From the Left.  

And what does that say about the Left that they are so easily manipulated by small numbers of shadowy forces.  Force able to cause them to drop their peaceful principles and hurt and destroy folks.  If these proto-Marxists so easily lose their self-control unwillingly perhaps they should refrain from going outside.  They know they lack self-discipline and are a potential physical threat to themselves or others.  The moral thing for Democrats to do is seek help before they hurt someone else. 

Indian War History

This one is too small.  But wait... is it a series?  Could be seven 130 page books.  Naw... seems too shirt-rendy in the description.

This one is too big

Maybe this one, but I will miss t.he brutal conflicts pre-revolution.  I like The West, but earlier frontier work is also important

Well, THIS sounds exciting:  Blood on the Ohio: Frontier Tales of Terror

One by American Heritage.

Oh, my aching

I’ve learned a new term.  "Listhesis".  And retrolisthesis.  It’s prolly the cause of my neuropathy in my feet and legs.  

It means, in layman’s terms, 'jacked up spine'.   

It might be better than my other worry.  The diabeetus. It’s not that.  That’s the good news.  The bad news is it makes it hard to sleep at night, with all the discomfort.  And that makes my guy interest and blog post slide down the quality ladder.  Sorry.  And I know folks that had or have it much worse than me.  Like sleep on the hard floor and contemplate suicide because of back pain.  I don’t have that.

Future plans include a month of therapy then an MRI.  We'll see, after that.  For the MRI ima try to get them to do head to hip.  Not just the lumbar.  I think the cervical and thoracic areas have their own story to tell..

So I am cautiously optimistic about it.  I know it’s name, I  am working to correct.  Perhaps some relief is coming 

Grease

 This makes me want to jump through all the NFA hoops and get a M2 Greasegun.

The incomparable Jerry Miculek:

Did you see that little hang-up at the end after two magazines?  Starting to jam at that early?  Now that is what makes me NOT want to jump through all the hoops and get a Greasegun...

Jerry IS faster with a revolver.  I wonder...  If he raced it if he could fire 18 revolver rounds before that machinegun did 30?  Heck he might be able to reload four times and beat it to 30 with a revolver.

Do you remember?

 

Indian Factor

 Saw this book by Bill O'Reilly.  Killing Crazy Horse.  

Yes, that O'Reilly.  That talking head television personality.  So I squint a little.

I don't like to consume my pop-History from a TV star, but, the subject matter...

I am a little lacking in depth of knowledge of the Indian wars.  And this book seems to cover a huge part of it.  1811 through the opening of the 20th C.  I'd like to brush up.  Can anyone recommend another book that covers that whole era or more (not just post Civil War farther west stuff). And I am looking History, not "whoa the noble savage and despicable pale faces" treatise pretending to be history.  You all know me.  You know what I want.  

Heck, you might tell me that O'Reilly did a truly phenomenal job and historians should praise his work here.  That's fine, too.  Butt up against my prejudices.  

Fatigue

 "Why do you fatigue so easily T-Bolt.  You usually only run through a box of 50 on the range, and have whinged like a toddler about high round count classes."

I'm glad you asked that.  I'm old.  In my 50s.  I am in desk-bound office shape and too damn fat.  Plus the aches and pains from a youthful life doing things that were more strenuous than high round count pistol classes.

My off hand is impacted by cervical neuropathy (I didn't even know I HAD a cervix...).  A couple month of physical therapy a couple years ago did the trick.  I can take my hat off with that hand again.  I still do the stretches.  It's not 100 percent, and tires easily.  I tired easily BEFORE all this. 

And I have a new term this week.  Retrolisthesis.  The discs are ok, but that one vertebra, L3 where it meets L4, just sternward a bit.  Probably into the spinal cord, causing my sciatica for the past 10 years and, more recently, numbness in my feet.  That scared my a bit, the numbness.  Coulda been Multiple Schlerosis, or, more likely, the Diabeetus.  Not quite there yet.  Need a few more donuts for that.  Already in PT for the back issues.  There is an MRI in my near future.

Man, growing old sucks.  I heard it was bad, but didn't expect it to be like this.

But that's why I fatigue easily.  All those.  It's a negative impact on my quality of life.  

Brain's ok, tho.  No Biden-brain for me yet.  I have come to the conclusion I should have been this wise and smart at 15 that I am at 50.  Everything would have been much better.

If I was... I still wouldn't have known what I wanted to be when I grew up...

You have to

Sorry.  But. You have to replace RBG(rip) immediately.  Before the election.  We, the whole damn country, does not have the luxury to put it off to February or even December.

1. First, it's 2020.  Black Swan year.
2. The Dems are already saying not to concede.
3. The process will be long and drawn out due to dubious vote by mail and ballot harvesting schemes coming down the pike already, possible extending things into December is this were a normal season.
4. The Dems are already saying they will contest no matter what and are prepping an army of lawyers.  This is known.
5. We already know from 2000 that at least part of all that will make its way to SCOTUS
6. Do you really want Scotus to tie 4-4?  Reminder:  2020

The only way this whole shebang does NOT end is SUPER-chaos (rather than just the regular chaos we have now) is if Trump wins a clear landslide on November 3rd.  Like upper 50s of popular vote, and Reagan-Mondale electoral, so that there aren't enough outstanding mail-in ballots extant to change anything.

Ugh.  THIS year.

These were my first thoughts after the shock wore off from hearing the news/

And Ammo

 Commenter 'Tim' mentioned that you should bring lots of ammo to the training class.

Well of course.  If they say the class runs through 500 rounds, total, in the 4 days it goes on, I'd have at least 600 rounds with me.  And probably a dozen magazine pre-loaded that I wouldn't count toward my personal total.

Though I question the value of high round count training classes.  Personally.  I just don't have the stamina for all that.  I think once fatigued out, unless you are training specifically for fatigue and how it affects your shooting, you aren't getting the learning bang for the buck.  And you might be reinforcing bad habits.

But a class that mentions a high round count does mean something positive.  Sounds like more time at the range and less time in the classroom.  Which is a good selling point for lots of shooting courses.  Unless you are learning first aid, or various law work wrt firearms and self-defense.

---

I see myself showing up with a pair of duplicate 1911s and the instructor going "uh oh, another of these guys.  what a pain." But I'd also have my shooting log and my gunsmith toting bag with spare springs and parts.  Then my only problem keeping up with the Glock guys will be the mag sizes.  I am confident that my 1911s work well enough I wouldn't be 'that guy' with them.  A Glock would break first. 

---

The tip of my extractor broke off?  I can fix that.  The replacement will have adequate tension set, but not be rock solid fit to the firing pin stop.  I've hear of the slide stop breaking.  Can replace that.  It too will be looser, but functioning.  

But it's a class, no time for testing.  That's why:  twin gun.  

You can replace a lot of broken pins and springs without too much worry or need for live fire tests.  

10 Things To Bring to Handgun Training Class

Ooo, I saw 10 things and didn't click over just yet.  I wanted to see how many I could guess.

Lessee.  A good attitude and a willingness to learn.

A spare gun.  Breakages happen and like to happen during gun class.

Lots of mags, preloaded, and a mag loader so make reloading those mags as easy as possible.  Ammo for same, of course.

A hat.  To protect from the sun and shade your eyes.  

A good appropriate holster and a GOOD belt.

Drinking water.

That's six.  Lessee how I did...

The article had more clothing recommendations.  Like footwear.  Expanded on the belt.  And ear and eye pro and a range bag.

Toy Guns

 With all the remote Zoom school learning going on, teachers are seeing Toys in kids' rooms.  Some of those are toy guns.  Then the teacher snitches that kid out to the cops, the cops bang on the door and scare the family, and the kids gets suspended.

This is evil.  For shame. 

They are toys. 

My parents were anti-gun-ish.  But not like other relatives that wouldn't let their kids play with even a stick that they pretended was a gun.  My parents knew a toy gun was harmless.  And my teachers back then knew that too. 

A toy gun is not a threat to shoot up the school.  Hell, a REAL gun isn't either in 99.999% of the cases.  For the sake of all that is holy won't someone please act like an adult in these sorts of situations?

New Blogger Format

Ok, see the post below?  It was done in the New Blogger UI.  This is old style.

As you can see the line spacing and what not is different.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.


Anyone know where the setting is in the New UI so I can set it the same as old? 

Looking at the crappy video

 Where the bad guy tried to assassinate those two cops sitting in their cruiser...

The perp plants his feet, brings the pistol up to his sight line, and doesn't hunch his sight line down to the pistol, and uses a two handed grip.  Decent form.  

The adrenaline is still coursing through him, and you can tell with the furtive fleeing.  He get's headshots, but it seems his accuracy sucked (thank goodness) and his victims survived.  Why did his accuracy not tell worse?  Guessing.  Adranaline, again, rushing himself, very little lifetime target practice.  But you don't get the stance and grip right by not working on it.  Evidence here is he worked on that.  Hollywood didn't train him.  Someone may of told him, "Naw, do it like this," and he may well have drilled it a time or two. 

The gun community has little respect for the gun handling abilities of gang banger types, but you underestimate these bad buys at your peril.  It wouldn't have taken much range practice to make this particular perp much more deadly, is what I am thinking.

A total bodger can shoot you dead, too, with only a touch of luck.  

Time Travel

I didn't get into guns and trying to improve my shooting until I started this blog in 2007.  Before that I was just like regular folk, like the ones going to the gunstore these days.

I had A gun. A pistol.  A revolver.  And a box of ammo.  And I know what my progression was these days.  Garand, M1A, AR.  Revolver.  1911.  Flirting with black plastic 9mm

But...  what if I was 20 years older and started doing this in 1987?

This presumes I was a Naval Officer in 1971, though, like I was in 1991.  And the war, then, would have loomed large.

I wouldn't have had the internet.  Just gun magazines and Soldier of Fortune.  I was wary of Glock in 2007, I'd certainly be as wary in 1987.  But would I have caught the interest in the 1911 that the internet gave me?  I'd have qualified on a 1911 in the Navy in 71 just as I did in 91.  But I was still revolver preferred after qualification.  So, like now, a 686 would be a likely first gun.  Or a 19.


Or would the 4506 have caught my eye in 87?  I bet they would.  Or like it.

Or one of the 9mm variants of smith

I bet I'd have got a mini-14, though.  If not repeating the M1A experience I already did here in the future.

If I had been smart I'd have gotten in a touch earlier and beaten the Hughes Amendment and gotten a Smith Enterprise selectfire M1A, for all the good it'd do me.  But I am not smart.  Or a sub gun that wasn't MP5 or Uzi (I remember me in the 80s and I do not know why I disliked both, but I did.  I wonder if I could get one of these in the early 80s....)

So... like me now. 

Do I even KNOW 20 years older me?  Without the internet to spark my interest would I have come to similar conclusions as I learned things? 

UGH!  I might have gotten a Beretta 92!  North Hollywood shootout and Miami Dade shootout wouldn't have happened or been internalized yet by 87.  Goetz and McDonald's shooting would have.  Luby's would ave spurred me to investigate CCW, but that would be later.

Who am I kidding?  I've gotten a pump shotgun I barely knew how to use, a Model 19 revolver and maybe a snubby.

This is Jim Rockford...

 Not very gun friendly, but...  It's Rockford.

NBC premiered the first regular series episode of the detective drama #TheRockfordFiles on this date in 1974 starring #JamesGarner as Los Angeles private investigator Jim Rockford. pic.twitter.com/l3o1oaic8u

— Silver Age Television 📺 (@SilverAgeTV) September 13, 2020

I take that back

 Now if this Democrat was in an ad on Youtube asking for my money, that'd be totally different.

Yeah, more of this.

Ugh

Got nuffin.

Getting lots of ads on Youtube from Dems fundraising to stop the OrangeManBad.  They can't be targeted.  I mean, my video watching history isn't Alex Jones  or Glenn Beck, but there are a few gun vids in the history.  One or two Paul Watsons.  A few more Bearings.  Not a huge amount of conservative views but enough to make an ad algorithm eliminate me for likely donation ad success for Dem beggars.  The Dems must be paying for a WIDE broadcast coverage.  It's their money, I guess, waste it how you like on Youtube. 

I am unlikely to donate to pols I like.  Much less like to donate to Democrats busy hurting people, and upending businesses, and, oh yeah, highly desirous of disarming me in the face of that madness at the first chance they get.  Commie simps, useful idiots, on the CHICOM payroll, or just full on Brown Shirts doing their modern day Kristallnacht.  The only thing that recommends them is their incompetence.  They aren't as good at the violence as their predecessors were 90 years ago.  So there is that.

World's Collide

When my firearm interests coincide with my watching-machinist interests.

Here is Stefan Gotteswinter, German machinist extraordinaire, working a mini 1911 magazine spring.



"T-Bolt, why do you only watch machinist youtube videos instead of, you know, learning machining?"

Are you crazy?  I have enough scary expensive hobbies.  Watching the videos, I get my fix, and I can handle it.

Yeah, I'm forgetting

It's starting to, it seem so long ago, now. I never got any feeling of settling the issue or any righteous vengeance.  Let's remember that for next time.  If you do something make it quick and devastating and make em howl for mercy then get out.

The aftermath should have definitely been dealt with by 2006.  Instead of doubling down on already insufficient measures and then making the whole damn thing interminable.  Perma-awful.  For a response to awful.

WTOP?

I didn't know they were channel 9 back in the day, before I was born. (That's DC's CBS affiliate)

Mmm, 1968.  As bad a year as 2020, that. What with the police shootings and Hong Kong Flu and riots and crime and whatnot.

It's now going to be heroic

To film a good movie, rather than a checkbox movie.

The quality cinema that doesn't bother with the hoops won't be successful, won't be recognized, might even be suppressed, but could just acquire cult status, readily.  I hope. 

The quashing of truth and beauty, for venal regressive politics.  Propaganda.  Just awful.

Ya know...

I'd have probably donated money to the NRA to help them in their time of need, fending off lawsuits in New York and Washington, but because of LaPierre's shenanigans I am not comfortable funding the grift he's created over there.

When Ollie North is the clean one in your org, and then you force him out because he asked too many audit style questions...  Well that says a lot about your con.


I have no problem with paying LaPierre a lotta money.  Just not all the money.  He needs to stay clean and fight the fight and not just try to fill his and his cronies' pockets.

Well, his replacement needs to do that.  I've lost trust.  Then the NRA needs to win a battle.  THEN I will send money again.  Fools.

Can you imagine how many new NRA members there would have been this year if there had been less stench of corruption about the joint?

Actually On Topic

We (the Occident) got good with boomsticks because of geography. And a lack of light cavalry nomads.

Ever think....

Ever wonder how long the quarantine would have been if the internet hadn't been invented yet?  If this were 1994, say, with online stuff in its infancy?

I got a mantis in my pantis

No, no, the dry firing app.

So we all are worried about burning through our range ammo. I know I am. Who know when Federal FMJ 230 gr will be back and less that $2 a round?  So I splurged and got the X10 Mantis.   I mentioned before I was interested.

Clever little bugger.  It detects all your flinches.  You don't have to aim at the phone.  Aim and the action figure of R. Lee Ermey on your shelf and keep the phone in your shirt pocket if you want.  It knows you are heeling the shot or gripping harder before the break.

I have just broke the surface of what this little hummer can do.  Still exploring.  Gotta get a daily dry fire habit up and running.  Come home, shoot two dozen shots?  That'd be fine.  I'll talk more about it later, I am sure.

A full stop is a period

Yeah, sposebly, the youngins are intimidated when you end a sentence with a period.

Young people are intimidated by full stops because they seem like a sign of anger in social media messages, linguistics experts have claimed.

(A 'full stop' is British for that dot at the end of a sentence.  Sorta like when they say 'half-litre' they really mean a 16 ounce pint with a little room for the head.) 

I'm gonna throw a flag on the play.  This article doesn't really mean what it appears to mean.  That folks should be sensitive of Gen Z and stop using periods. 

No, this article was written by a gramma nazi, appalled at the awful grammar in social media.  They are hoping folks will get defensive and contrary and insist on always using a period.  It could backfire on them... And folks will start over-using the simplest punktuation mark...  And. that. would. be. awful..........

A Bit Nutty

A Squirrel said "Good luck finding ammo for all those new guns."

'Tectonic shift': Gun sales up by almost 72%; first-time buyers lead the way

At least a lot of the gunstores around here still have some ammo.  In reserve.  Not much.  And when they get guns in for sale they will often sell a box to the gun purchaser.

But what are you gonna do with a box of 50?  Well, fill up your magazines and only clear out the grease in the barrel if there is a home invasion.  Not much range fun.  Maybe later.

"You think they'll be interested in electing someone who promises to take them away?"

The pessimists all agree that, yes, they have not learned any lessons, and will indeed vote for folks that will confiscate their shiny new purchase. 

Catching the Red Dot

I was thinking on Tam's post.

Reflex sights on pistols.

I have tried them, but I have night zero practice and/or training with them.  But I look silly when I play with one at the proverbial counter at the gun store.

Tam is probably onto what I am doing.  Worrying about the front sight.  I am hunting for that dot and not finding it.  If you are watching me I am making little circles with the muzzle looking for it, then going "this is BS!"

Because I don't know what I am doing.

Sound like I be bringing the red dot up to my sight line while looking at the target and might be pleasantly surprised, hey, there's a dot.

For future exploration. 

You guys remember?

My Buddy the Gun Enthusiast  The guy that got me into all this?

He keeps writing books.  I was shocked when I read the first one, because it was actually good.  And so are the others.  Good old fashioned sci-fi fun.  Check em out.

A little less than a year before...

He fell. Never saw his daughter older than 2 days.  Never saw his grandkids.

Mo

75

On the 75th anniversary of the surrender of Japan and the end of World War II, thank you to every veteran of the Pacific Theater.

— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) September 2, 2020

Liberal at Work

REFLEXIVELY anti gun.  Calls guns instruments of murder.  Would be very supportive of a door to door confiscation and ban, with no grandfathering.

He thinks, was told, that Aaron Danielson used pepper spray on someone and that is why he deservedly was shot by prohibited person Michael Reinoehl, an admitted Marxist charged with felonies at a minimum.

I will remember this the next time Knee-Jerk goes on a general anti-gun rant and claims gun use by regular people is never justified.  "Except when I get pepper sprayed, right, KJ?  If you spray something that is an irritant and will have zero effect on me in a day, I am allowed to double tap you.  YOUR rules."

Of course, I will not then double tap him.  His rules are jacked, not mine,